The South Korean company SK Innovation will build a plant manufacturing batteries for use in electric cars in the industrial park in Komárom with an investment worth HUF 97.5 billion, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said at the ceremony launching the construction works.
Péter Szijjártó added in the first phase of its capacity the factory will create 410 jobs, and the government has therefore awarded a non-repayable grant of HUF 8.17 billion to the project.
The automotive industry constitutes the backbone of the Hungarian economy: 176,000 people work in the sector which generated HUF 8,000 billion in 2017 and is responsible for almost one third of the country’s industrial production, the Minister said.
Mr Szijjártó also highlighted that Hungary would like to retain the strong positions it has acquired in the automotive industry, and they are therefore making every effort to ensure that forward-looking technologies are introduced into the country.
SK Innovation is South Korea’s third largest company. With its settlement in Komárom, there are now three major battery manufacturing plants in Hungary. Additionally, the Chinese BYD manufactures electric buses in the city’s industrial park, and the nearby Audi has also started the production of electromotors for cars, the Minister said.
According to the information of Yoon Ye-sun, chief of SK Innovation’s Battery and Information/Electronics Division, the plant will operate on a floor space of 430,000 square metres. They will start mass production in 2020 when the capacity of the batteries manufactured will be around 7.5GWh which will be able to serve 250,000 cars. They will launch the second phase of construction subject to their order portfolio, and its capacity will be equal to that of the first.
The South Korean SK Innovation Zrt. announced in November 2017 that they are planning to build a plant manufacturing lithium batteries for use in electric cars in the Komárom industrial park. The company already has a battery plant using effectively the same technology in the city of Seosan in South Korea.
The company is seeking to break into the European market with its project in Komárom. At the ceremony organised to mark the launch of the construction works the representatives of BMW, Daimler-Benz, Ferrari, Hyundai and Renault were greeted specifically. With the appearance of SK Innovation, three South Korean companies will be making batteries for electric cars in Central and Eastern Europe. LG Chem will open a plant in Poland in 2018; this is an investment worth more than HUF 400 million. Samsung SDI recently opened its plant in Göd which was built from an investment of HUF 100 billion and employs 600 people.
(MTI)
